


(Not so) Deep waters

by TurquoiseMapleSyrup



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: (everybody knows about it), Chaos, Established Relationship, Fluff, Light-Hearted, Secret Relationship, TCC friendship, Tattoos, lake trips, some feelings thrown here and there, swimming lessons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26654008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurquoiseMapleSyrup/pseuds/TurquoiseMapleSyrup
Summary: Off site TCC shenanigans involving a lake, a couple of tattoos and a nearly-drowning Yuzuru.
Relationships: Javier Fernández/Yuzuru Hanyu
Comments: 4
Kudos: 51





	(Not so) Deep waters

**Author's Note:**

> I remember Yuzuru saying in an interview that he can't swim, and I couldn't get out of my head the idea of writing something about it. It was meant to be something quiet and small between Yuzu and Javi at first, but then all the TCC guys absolutely wanted to join and so I've found myself with more than 5k words of pure chaos.  
> Hope you enjoy!

Javier smiles looking out of the window: it’s an amazingly sunny Sunday. Sitting back down on the bed, he sends a string of sunny emojis on the TCC students group chat.

When Javi has shown up in Toronto at the end of the season, they have decided to take advantage of his presence and planned a trip to the lake for that day; they agreed to decide whether to go or not according to the weather, and now it’s leaving no doubts at all.

Zhenya, apparently already awake, is the first to answer: ‘ _It’s settled then, we’re going!_ ’, she writes with a couple of party emojis.

It’s still quite early (how did he even wake up that early on his own?) and it looks like most of his friends are still sleeping, but Javier knows himself well enough to be sure he’s going to be late anyway if he keeps laying in bed with his phone.

So he makes the effort to get up from the bed and strolls in the direction of the kitchen of his rented apartment to at least start the coffee machine. He had refused Yuzuru’s offer to go and stay in his house, he really didn’t want to bother Yumi, even though he perfectly knows that she loves him dearly, and with an apartment of his own he would be also able to spend some time alone with Yuzuru if they wanted to. This night, however, Yuzuru has decided to sleep in his own house and so here Javier is, alone.

After a fulfilling breakfast consisting of what would normally be considered 4 or 5 cups of coffee, he checks his phone again and sees that nearly everybody has answered with enthusiasm at this point: Jun, Jason, the other Javier. Only a certain someone is suspiciously silent, despite being known for being always awake at much more ungodly hours.

‘ _Well, amazing, we can settle meeting hour as soon as Yuzu wakes up then_ ’, he types before going to pick up his clothes from a drawer.

Obviously everybody starts teasing and pointing out that the Japanese is surely already awake and just ignoring them as usual, and as expected Yuzuru appears on the chat less than five minutes later.

‘ _Hey guys I’m awake. Are you sure the weather is really nice? I can see some clouds in the distance, what if it rains in the afternoon?_ ’.

Javi stares at the screen amused, and wonders if the others know what is actually going on and if they are currently laughing their asses off. He types back: ‘ _I literally see no clouds here_ ’ and then, deciding to tease a little bit, since probably only someone who lives in a different city could see clouds at the moment, he adds ‘ _Do you guys do?_ ’.

Zhenya must get the cue, because she answers with a pic of herself shrugging, captioned ‘ _None at all, we can go and have a super good time!_ ’. Javier swears he can clearly hear Yuzu’s groan at that, in spite of the kilometers dividing their apartments, and chuckles.

After nobody else answers nor supports his theory, Yuzuru’s deadpan reply comes in the form of a ‘ _Okay, I trust whatever you say. When are we meeting?_ ’.

~

They finally settle for meeting at 10 am at the bus stop near the rink and Javier is very proud to notice that he is not even one minute late. To be precise, he arrives there at 9:59. Jun and Zhenya are already there, backpacks on their shoulders and huge grins on their faces as they wave at Javier. They hug and pat each other’s backs, and sit on the railing next to the street while waiting for the others, already betting on their order of arrival.

Needless to say, all of their predictions turn out to be wrong. At 10:06, Jason is running towards them at full speed, hurried and panting as he approaches. 

“Whew hello guys, sorry for being late”, he manages after a few seconds of trying to catch his breath.

“Hello Jason! Never mind, not even that bad for your standards”, teases Zhenya.

For sure, you are quite early for Raya’s standards”, says Javier, and when he gets many raised eyebrows he hurries to add “not that I should have any rights to talk”. Jun laughs at that and nods his head approvingly; the poor boy is probably the only one of the whole lot who is always on time.

“Yeah, now that I think of it, how come you were on time today?”.

“Don’t underestimate me, Jason, I’m a new man now that I don’t need to train in the dead of the night”.

“It’s called morning”, Zhenya pipes in.

“It’s definitely night”, shoots back Javier, mentally reading himself to fight tooth and claw to defend his right to sleep at least 10 hours per night.

But their newborn argument is interrupted by Jun. “Alright, but where on Earth is Yuzuru? He is always on time”.

Javier snorts. ‘Always on time’, he thinks. ‘Sure, as long as there’s training involved or Yumi driving him around. Just go and date him, he’ll show you his punctuality’. He notices he has actually snorted out loud, and now three pairs of eyes are looking at him.

“Huh? Do you know what’s gotten into him today? He was weird”, asks Jun.

Javier obviously knows all too well what’s going on, but he waves his hand to the side in a vague gesture. “I guess he’s just woken up grumpy, and he’s spent half an hour in the shower”. He catches Evgenia’s lips curling up at the edges, though, and the two exchange a quick smirk.

However, it’s when Javier Raya finally shows up, at 10:23, strolling in no hurry whatsoever along the pavement and waving merrily, that they really start to worry.

“I cannot believe none of the Javiers is the last one to arrive, this is just impossible”.

“If this was ever to happen, I would have put all my money on you, though”, says Jun incredulously looking at Jason.

“Where the fuck has Yuzuru gone”, Javier wonders out loud, fishing out his phone to text him. Now, he may not be always on time, but more than 20 minutes late without a single text are a little bit much for his standards.

Raya watches the commotion around him slightly puzzled, before realizing that Yuzuru is actually still missing. “Hey, wait, you really are telling me I’m not the last one?”. He sounds surprised and delighted, and maybe also a tiny bit offended.

‘ _Where on earth are you_ ’, Javier writes in his private chat with Yuzuru.

The reply, at least, comes immediately. ‘ _So sorry Javi, nearly there_ ’.

And, sure enough, one minute later Yuzuru is jogging towards the bus stop, followed a dozen of meters behind by the bus itself.  They all jump on, and finally greet Yuzuru while the bus starts off.

“I’m really sorry guys, I woke up late and I was so sleepy I moved like a snail all morning”. It doesn’t look like he’s awake at all, indeed. He looks tired and grumpy and, Javier can see it, kind of defeated.

“Don’t worry man, you’re becoming a little Spanish too!”, comments happily the other Javier.

“Yeah, you’ll see, you’ll forget your bed in no time today”, Jason claps Yuzuru’s shoulder with one of his radiant smiles on.

Yuzuru seems to relax a bit at that. Jason really has an amazingly soothing power on everybody.

“Yes, okay, we have a good day”, the Japanese concedes smiling lightly and closing his eyes, head against the seat.

~

Two more buses and a short walk later, the six skaters are finally laying on Sunnyside Beach, along the shore of Lake Ontario.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m trying to get the first tan of the season”, Jason states standing up to remove his shirt.

And as it’s routine, the others start whistling loudly and pretending to catcall him. Jason, who is used to their silly habit and can’t find himself embarrassed by it anymore, makes a show out of it, spinning on the spot and twirling his shirt in the air between the cheers. By the time he sits down again they are all shaking with laughter, and if the whole beach is staring at them, they definitely don’t notice it.

After some time of laying under the sun, though, the sweating persuades the others to follow Jason and go through the same ritual. Jun and Yuzuru are the last ones to surrender, removing their clothes while sitting to be less noticeable and rolling their eyes.

“Whoah, what’s that?”, Zhenya snaps curiously, pointing at Yuzuru’s inner thigh when while removing his trousers he causes his swimsuit to uncover the skin there.

“Uh? What?”

“There, there, hey that was a tattoo!”.

“Oh, yes”, Yuzuru giggles sheepishly. He wasn’t thinking about it at all. Not that he is ashamed of it or anything, he is quite fond of it actually, he just isn’t used to people knowing. He’d had it in such a private place for a reason. Smiling at her, he drops his knee to the ground and lifts the hem of his swimsuit to show better the small figure: it’s black and it represents the five Olympic rings with a skate next to them.

“Wow, it’s cool. Who knew you were such a bad boy to get a tattoo”, Evgenia teases.

“You don’t know a lot of things, Zhenya”, Jason winks at her.

“Hey wait, why, did you guys already know?”.

“Uhm well, it’s not like it’s a state secret”.

“You know, it’s not like we’re always covered head to toe in the locker room”.

Evgenia pouts at Javier. “It’s not fair you always leave me out of gossip just because I’m the only girl here, I really wasn’t expecting this betrayal”.

“Oh come on, don’t be dramatic, it’s just a tattoo”.

“Just a tattoo?! It’s the same tattoo Javi has on himself!!”, Zhenya remarks dramatically. And, undeniably, right there on Javi’s calf, there’s the exact same figure, just bigger and oriented in a different way.

“Ah-ah, caught”, the other Javier snickers.

Javi shrugs nonchalantly. “Yeah, he copied me”.

“I WHAT, no maybe you mean you copied me”, Yuzuru immediately answers, looking offended.

“Well, the idea of getting a tattoo after Pyeongchang was mine”.

“But we decided together what to get”.

“Yeah, we actually went together to get it”, Javier explains to the others.

“To celebrate winning together”, Yuzuru adds.

“Aww how cute”, Jun coos.

Javier feels like laughing. If their training mates really haven’t figured out he and Yuzuru are in a relationship yet, there might be some serious problems with their minds. But the more he looks at Jun’s innocent and adorable expression, the more he believes the kid is probably not at all that innocent and is just poking fun at them.

In spite of the knowing smirks that all their friends are wearing, no teasing follows and Javier is thankful, because Yuzuru was already turning a nice shade of scarlet.

He quickly decides to take advantage of the moment of silence to change the topic: “What about a swim guys?”. But as soon as the words leave his mouth, he realizes his mistake.  Yuzuru goes wide-eyed, looking at him with a mixture of panic and murder for a couple of seconds, before recovering and going back to looking dead inside.

The others, instead, accept cheerfully the proposal and start getting up. Jason, being the ball of enthusiasm that he is, starts running towards the water and jumps into it splashing everything around him, including the poor Javiers who were calmly approaching. Zhenya, some steps behind, laughs at them and is immediately punished by Javier, who grabs her and flies her into the water. Jun and Yuzuru, the grandpas of the group when it comes to being adventurous, are just starting to put their feet in the water.

“Uh oh it’s super cold”, Yuzuru complains.

“Come on, old men, there are continents moving faster than you”.

It’s the last civil invitation, before Yuzu and Jun get splashed mercilessly by the other four.

Jun, choosing suicide over murder, throws himself in the water before he can think of being too cold, while Yuzuru tries in vain to shield himself, screeching.

Laughing and being so loud that everyone at the beach is probably hating them right now, they walk some more in the water, until they reach a point where they can float around without scratching their backs on the bottom of the lake.

“Ah, you’re no fun”, Raya says to Yuzuru, who is the only one still standing, with the water at the level of his hips.

“It’s too cold”, Yuzuru justifies himself, arms wrapped around his lithe frame, shivering. “You swim, I watch you”.

It’s a fraction of second. Javier has just the time to watch in horror as his namesake grabs his boyfriend bridal style and throws him in the water, while Yuzuru, looking absolutely terrified, tries to yell something along the lines of “Nonono please I can’t-“ before being swallowed by the water.

Javier runs to the spot where Yuzuru has landed in a fountain of splashes, and is now random flailing his limbs in what must be an attempt to get his head over the surface of the water. The situation would be absolutely comical, he realizes, considering that the water there is shallow enough for them all, Zhenya included, to stand, if he wasn’t so worried for that idiot of a boyfriend he has. He catches him by his middle and yanks him up until his feet touch the ground.

“Shit Yuzu are you okay? Dios m í o, what an idiot you are. Couldn’t you simply tell them-“, but he is interrupted by a violent cough. Yuzuru is still trying to catch his breath while sputtering part of the water he’s drunk, and Javier prays whoever will listen to him to prevent an asthma attack.

Luckily, Yuzuru calms down and his breathing seems to get back to a normal rhythm, even if still a little bit labored. The others are all gathered around them by the time it happens.

“Hey Yuzu I’m so sorry, I really didn’t think you can’t swim”, Javier says guiltily, one hand gently on Yuzuru’s shoulder.

“Are you okay?”, Jun checks.

“Yes yes, okay”.

“Why didn’t you tell us you can’t swim? We would have been careful”.

Yuzuru feels so dumb in this moment. “I was embarrassed”, we answers with his face buried in his hand. “Come on, who doesn’t know how to swim at 24. You would have teased me”.

“But we would have never t-“, Jun is cut off by Evgenia.

“We surely would have teased you for the rest of your life, but at least we wouldn’t have tried to kill you”.

“We could have taught you”, Jason proposes. “But maybe now it’s not the right moment”, he then adds acknowledging the glare Javier sends his way.

~

And still, a few hours later, here they are again in the water, with a not-so-convinced but still ready-to-take-his-first-swimming-lessons Yuzuru.

“Okay, but you all stay away”, Javier starts in a possessive tone. “I teach him”.

“I can swim much better, but if you insist”, Zhenya says smugly. “I have the best dog paddle on this beach”.

Javier rolls his eyes. “Show him, then”, and Zhenya happily complies.

Yuzuru looks, blinking perplexedly. “So I should... kick my feet up and down and… move my arms like this?”.

Jason bursts out laughing. “You’ll more likely drown if you move your arms like that. Try more like this”, he says while showing the correct motion, that somehow out of the water looks even more ridiculous than normal.

“Okay…” Yuzu concedes before trying to extend his body in a nearly horizontal position, feet still on the bottom of the lake. He kicks and starts moving forward, but it’s barely one split second before he twists his body so that he’s lying on his back and he floats for half a meter more before going back to stand.

“Well, it went well”, Jun chuckles.

“Come on Yuzu, try again. I’m keeping my hands under your body for support”, proposes Javi.

He tries again, and the outcome is almost the same. Yuzuru brushes his fringe from his forehead, looking ashamed. “I’m sorry Javi, it’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just…”. He fiddles with his hands, staring down at the water, and after some moments he raises his head to look at Javier. “I’ll try again”.

And again, he finds himself lying on his back before he can understand what he’s doing.

After a couple more attempts with poor improvement, Javier tries to gently guide his body to stay in position, and he manages for a couple of seconds more than the previous attempts, but nothing more than that: Yuzuru starts trashing to get free and puts his feet down.

“Oh come on Yuzu, is your front allergic to water?”.

“I don’t like that position”, Yuzuru answers, looking nervous.

Javi raises his eyebrows. “It’s literally the positions everybody swims in..? What’s wrong with it?”.

“I don’t like not being able to look behind me”.

Javier’s eyebrows raise even more, if possible. “Uh? For which reason?”.

Yuzuru now is definitely beetroot red. “I don’t like water okay! I don’t trust. What if there are fish? I don’t like fish, they are slimy and they bite”.

Javier tries hard not to laugh in front of his face, and really envies his friends, who are currently chortling trying to hide behind him or behind their own hands. “Querido, seriously, do you see any fish around here? Look, nothing!”, he says, making a show of turning around and looking in every direction, swinging his arms in the water. “And even if there are some tiny fish that got lost, they won’t be interested in you, especially if you are moving”.

“And, however, you have a big strong man to watch your back”, the other Javier adds, slapping soundly Javi’s back.

Yuzuru rolls his eyes.

“What, are you questioning my strength as a fish hunter?”, Javi asks, mouth wide open in mock hurt.

“No, no, obviously not”, Yuzu answers quickly, sounding unimpressed.

“Well then, once settled that I’m your personal fish bodyguard, I’d suggest that you float on your back”. “Since you like that position so much”, he adds at Yuzuru’s horrified expression. “It will also help you a lot to gain confidence in the water”.

“Yes and also it’s what every single child has done in their first swimming lesson. You can do this”, Evgenia cuts short.

“But what if Japanese people don’t float?”.

Javier chokes on his own laughter. He will forever be surprised by Yuzu’s creativity in blurting out total nonsense to try and avoid things he doesn’t want to do. He rubs his face theatrically, looking exasperated. He can be a drama queen, too.

“No but hey really, I’ve never seen any of my Japanese friends swimming! My sister can’t swim either”, Yuzuru adds stubbornly.

Jun facepalms. “Never met a Japanese swimmer?”.

Yuzuru pretends to think about it, looking slightly offended, and finally shrugs.

And while he is still standing there all grumpy, Javier grabs him under his armpits and knees and yanks him up to bring his body at the level of the water surface.

Yuzuru yelps, outraged, but eventually relaxes his body when Javier tells him to do so. Seeing that he has not plummeted into the lake yet and feeling the safety of his boyfriend’s hands under his body, he tries to extend his limbs and keep still, and is astonished to find out that even a hopeless Japanese like him can indeed float.

He tries it over and over again, with and without Javier’s hands, until he manages to keep the position for quite a lot of seconds, and he enthusiastically asks to try to swim again. They all grin as they see the usual excitement and the drive for the challenge glinting in Yuzuru’s eyes.

Javier takes some steps behind him, until he’s standing some meters from Yuzuru, and opens his arms at his boyfriend, who kicks the ground hard and starts swimming in his very own dog paddle, barely managing to dive into the Spaniard’s arms.

Jason, Jun, Zhenya and Javier all cheer at him, and Yuzuru glares at them. “Don’t tease me”.

“Hey what, we’re not teasing. You made it! Your first swim”.

“That was pathetic. Not even two meters”.

“Oh no, here we go, we’ll not leave this lake until he has mastered perfectly all the four swimming styles”, Jun mumbles under his breath, causing Zhenya to snicker.

Almost as if to prove his point, Yuzuru stubbornly states that he needs to try again.

This time, he orders Javier to go farther before launching his body forward. His swimming style is still extra messy, with his arms moving more like a chicken’s than a dog’s, but he is moving forward and it nearly looks like he half-knows what he’s doing. Nearly. One meter away from Javi, one of his arms fails to do the correct movement to support him and his head tips down the water surface, causing him to come out coughing and trashing wildly. Luckily, Javier readily surges forward to grab him and Yuzuru holds into him for dear life, arms wrapped so tightly around his neck he must be strangling him and legs circling his waist, like a sloth hugging a tree. With his chin resting on Javi’s shoulder and the side of his head against Javi’s cheek, he is still coughing lightly and spitting the half lake he’s just drunk.

Javier lets some time pass by, relishing happily in the feeling of his boyfriend plastered to his body, wet skin on wet skin, and hoping to be able to calm him down enough with his only presence; he would love to stroke his hair and kiss his face, or maybe even bring their lips together, but, well, they don’t do that in public. Never in front of other people, not even their closest friends, because they don’t officially know that they are a thing.

He rubs soothingly his shoulder, however, before speaking to him in a gentle yet amused voice. “Yuzu, querido, you know you can put your feet down. We’re still in shallow water, look, I’m standing. And you’re killing me”.

Yuzuru reacts immediately, going wide-eyed and disentangling himself with an embarrassed blush on his face. He can literally range from embarrassingly flirtatious to a blushing mess according to the weather, the mood or God knows what. Today we definitely are in blushing mode. At least this time the red on his cheeks could easily pass as an effect of the effort, Javier thinks.

“I want to skate, it’s easier”, Yuzuru whines pitifully, causing laughter all around him.

“Well we could always freeze the lake, it shouldn’t be that difficult”.

But Yuzuru’s focus has already shifted again and he is no longer paying attention to the others, gaze stubbornly fixed on the vast expanse of water in front of him, glaring at it like it has done him some personal offence.

Javier splashes water in his face, grinning. “Come on, try again”.

Yuzuru splashes him back with twice his strength, nearly drowning him.

“Okay Javi, but stay near, just in case”, he tells Javier before launching himself in one more attempt to master the noble art of dog paddle.

~

Around half an hour later, Jun and Evgenia are standing with the water at their knees, arms crossed in front of them, looking in the distance at a black head bouncing up and down on the surface of the lake as Yuzuru has finally figured out how to move in the water and seems to cannot bring himself to stop.

“Who’s gonna tell him that if he doesn’t come out this very second he’s gonna permanently be a dried prune?”.

“I actually think he’s growing fins any moment now”.

Evgenia giggles. “Javier would love him anyway, prune or mermaid. Why should he care after all”.

“I don’t think Javier will be very pleased if he becomes a dried prune himself, though”, says the other Javier passing by them with Jason, and urges the others to go and drag the pair out of the water.

~

As they stumble on the beach, Javier and Yuzuru collapse on their beach towels. Or better, beach towel, because Javier has realized he’s left at home his (he was already on time, you can’t expect that he had also packed everything he needed) and has made himself at home on Yuzuru’s.

Speaking of whom, he is lying down, still pouting since he’s come out of the water. “I was perfectly fine in the water, a little more time and I could start learning breaststroke”. He hasn’t put up much of a fight though, just some whiny complaining, probably realizing that his body was giving up from tiredness.

As he shifts on the towel to make more room for Javi, he winces. “Ooooow oh no look, I’ve become a grilled shrimp!”, he says in a horrified tone staring at his arms, which are indeed of an unhealthy shade of bright pink. “I forgot to put sunscreen, I knew it, it’s your fault!”.

“What? Our fault? Hey look at me, do I look any better?”, Zhenya asks outraged, showing her own reddish limbs.

“Yes, you said we must swim and I got scared and I forgot. You confuse me”, he explains waving his arms around for maximum effect and pouting harder.

“However, grilled shrimps are delicious”.

Yuzuru raises his eyebrows at Javier and gives him a deadpan look, before breaking his façade and giggling at his boyfriend’s silliness when the Spaniard winks at him.

“Well, lobster is even better I guess”, Jun states proudly, and indeed he is definitely the reddest of the group.

“How do you guys manage it?”, Zhenya asks in awe looking at Jason and the Javiers, observing them as if they were some weird animal species with unbelievable peculiarities.

“You mean how I’m not burnt?”, Jason asks laughing. “You won’t believe what a magic trick, I put sunscreen on while you all were too busy catcalling Javier who was stripping”.

Zhenya pouts, looking unsatisfied with his answer. “And you two?”.

“Uh, Spanish powers”, Javi answers removing an imaginary speck of dust from his shoulder.

“Mpff, I want those Spanish powers too”, grumbles Yuzu.

“Well, being late is a good start”, explains Javier Raya, “but you still have a long way to go”.

Yuzu just looks at him sadly, and goes back to examining more closely his burnt arms.

His black hair is still wet, standing up in a way that resembles his Origin hairstyle from when he’s passed his hands through it in frustration, his perfectly built chest is glistening under the sun, still covered in droplets of water that Javi absolutely doesn’t want to lick away, and his long, endless lean legs are stretched out on the towel in all their gloriousness. He might look freshly taken out from a fashion magazine, if it wasn’t for the slightly pouting expression he’s wearing that makes him an overwhelmingly adorable sight.

And Javi may be staring at that sight for a little longer than normal, definitely not caring that Yuzu’s perfect smooth skin is a quite hilarious pinkish hue instead of its usual milky colour. Or better, he doesn’t care esthetically speaking, Yuzuru is gorgeous nonetheless, but he takes pity on his boyfriend, knowing all too well how easily he gets sunburnt.

“Hey Yuzu, do you want to put on some sunscreen now?”, he offers, brandishing his own sunscreen tube.

“It’s a little bit late now Javi. It wouldn’t be useful now, right? Never mind, I’ll just shower myself in after-sun cream when I get home”, he answers with a sigh. He stands and starts putting back on his clothes to avoid to burn himself further, but only manages to make a total mess since he’s still pretty wet.

Clothes sticking to his body, even grumpier than before, he lays back on the towel, shoving Javi to the side to get some space to himself.

“Hey, what, you don’t want me here? How rude”, the Spaniard replies to the shove with mock offence.

Yuzu huffs. “You are cumbersome”.

“What, how do you even know this word?”.

Yuzuru just sticks his tongue out at him and makes himself comfortable on the beach towel, nudging with his foot Javi’s leg. The Spaniard stares at him blankly for some time, before he replies pushing back Yuzuru’s leg, causing him to push him again and so on until they’re kicking blindly in the direction of the other and laughing like idiots.

“Now you can come back”, Yuzuru tells Javi, who is now half laying on the sand.

“Oh thank you your majesty, how magnanimous of you”, he answers laying down next to Yuzuru, close to him enough to fit on the towel but not enough to make him uncomfortable in front of the others. He is taken aback, however, when Yuzuru slings his arm over his waist and lets it rest there, the same way the Spaniard has done so many times with him during galas or practices. Javi chances a glance at the others, and finds them half minding their own business and half throwing soft looks and smiles at them. He relaxes, seeing that Yuzu is looking completely relaxed and contented too, not at all embarrassed for the first time today, and he throws his arm around his boyfriend’s neck, caressing discreetly the hair on the back of his head.

Zhenya, who was bickering with Jun, drags them into a conversation about some kpop thing she wants their opinion on; Javi barely knows what they’re talking about, but Yuzu dives in enthusiastically and, much to Zhenya’s horror, appears to be on Jun’s side.

Javier soon loses the grasp on the conversation, he’s too much of an old man to be so on point with these topics, and Yuzuru’s endless blabbering two centimeters away from his ear is really doing nothing to spare his poor currently overworked brain cells. So he cuts himself off from the argument and, in his peaceful headspace, he cannot help but think he’s happy. Happy that he’s laying down hugging his boyfriend on a public beach, in front of their friends, and they’re acting like nothing unusual is going on (and not that it is, actually, considering how they act around each other at the rink, but there’s no need to stress this now). Happy because he knows it’s not something he can get used to, it’s not something they’ll be able to do anywhere or at any time, but he can hope and dream. Happy because it’s happening right now and it feels amazing.

He casts a last look at the bright sky, that’s blinking down at them peacefully, and he closes his eyes, letting the lively familiar voices of his friends wash over him in a warm hug, lulling him into a light slumber. Being a swimming teacher is tiring, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Dios mío = my God  
> Querido = darling


End file.
